iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Maple Syrup!

Started by jrose1970, January 11, 2016, 11:39:04 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

celliott

Yup, lines get left in the woods. Trees and branches always fall on them, squirrels chew them up, bears\coyotes bite mainlines, stuff happens.

We do a total walkthrough of all the sugarbushes, mainlines and laterals before we tap to repair downed lines and find other busted stuff, so when tapping time comes, we just go in and drill trees, and hopefully everything is tight once the vacuum pumps get turned on.
Chris Elliott

Clark 666C cable skidder
Husqvarna and Jonsered pro saws
265rx clearing saw
Professional maple tubing installer and maple sugaring worker, part time logger

Stephen1

Quote from: beenthere on January 13, 2016, 10:32:59 AM
Stephan
Did you leave something out regards that large blank space? just curious....
BT I noticed it also, I did not leave anything out though.
IDRY Vacum Kiln, LT40HDWide, BMS250 sharpener/setter 742b Bobcat, TCM forklift, Sthil 026,038, 461. 1952 TEA Fergusan Tractor

beenthere

Maybe just a lot of "enters" that can be deleted?
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

jrose1970

It's fun to walk 24 taps every day, but I can imagine that isn't possible with 1200 taps. LOL
I'm sure there is still plenty of walking.  Thank you all very much.
Good luck sappin'!
HFE-36; International 424-37HP; McCullogh Pro 10-10

Chuck White

Our 5/16" lines run from the spout to a manifold on the mainline, then the sap runs down hill to a barrel.

We drive the tractor to the barrels, at the low end of the line, and put a 12V sump pump into the barrel and pump the sap out of the barrel and up into the gathering tub on the trailer!

We have one 1" mainline, about 300' long and the rest of the mainlines are 1/2".

Mostly, the majority of our walking takes place when we're tapping the trees.
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

jrose1970

Here in Tennessee, even in the big woods, the good sugar maples are fewer and farther between than
in New York I'm sure.  We are lucky to live at about 2300 feet elevation and have a climate more similar to southern Ohio. My forest management plan includes leaving EVERY sugar maple for another generation. Hopefully they will follow suit.  Congrats on your 1200 plus taps!
HFE-36; International 424-37HP; McCullogh Pro 10-10

cbla

And so it begins 8) I will be doing 27 taps this year. Won't start here for awhile yet.

CJennings

I finally have my own sugar maples to tap so I will be tapping this year with probably just 15-20 buckets to see how it goes for the first time. I don't really know when to start tapping (southern part of Essex County, Vermont) so I guess I'll just keep an eye on the temperatures there and hopefully my road isn't solid black ice when I need to drive up my hill.

celliott

Quote from: CJennings on January 15, 2016, 04:29:44 PM
I finally have my own sugar maples to tap so I will be tapping this year with probably just 15-20 buckets to see how it goes for the first time. I don't really know when to start tapping (southern part of Essex County, Vermont) so I guess I'll just keep an eye on the temperatures there and hopefully my road isn't solid black ice when I need to drive up my hill.

Just doing that many buckets, you'd probably be safe to just tap when the sap first starts to run.
We're starting February 1st just so we're sure we have enough time to get them all done (plus in case we have an early, mid February run)
Chris Elliott

Clark 666C cable skidder
Husqvarna and Jonsered pro saws
265rx clearing saw
Professional maple tubing installer and maple sugaring worker, part time logger

CJennings

I was thinking the first week of March is when I'd start thinking of tapping, unless it's abnormally cold. Does that sound about right? I'm not really sure when the sap normally runs up there. 

celliott

It really all depends on the weather. A few warm days to get things thawed out, then freezing at night, warm days.
Beginning march is a ballpark, but a lot of syrup has been made in Vermont in February, as well as April.
Being in Essex county you are a bit further north, and if you are at a bit higher elevation you might expect to run a bit later (and longer) than the rest of the state.
Chris Elliott

Clark 666C cable skidder
Husqvarna and Jonsered pro saws
265rx clearing saw
Professional maple tubing installer and maple sugaring worker, part time logger

CJennings

Yeah it does depend on the weather. I have some elevation (south facing slope). It will be interesting whenever it decides to start running.

jrose1970

Hey, we are still learning a lot. The north or south slope plays a huge role. The trees on the north slope are not producing very much.  We have made at least 4 quarts so far.  For sure, I will wait until around Jan. 15th  next year to drill and tap. I'm afraid my taps will dry out by the middle of February. Maybe I'll be wrong. We had a deluge around the end of January!
HFE-36; International 424-37HP; McCullogh Pro 10-10

Chuck White

Glad to hear someone is making syrup!   smiley_thumbsup

A few in this area have tapped, but we are now due for a cold snap next weekend.   >:(

We don't have any snow now, but the ground is frozen so that holds the sap from running for now.

Going to be a questionable year anyway!   ::)
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

Roxie

On Friday, Cowboy Bob drove to Conestoga, PA, to deliver a portable milker he sold.  The fella that bought it, gave him a half gallon of maple syrup he had just bottled.  Bob got to see the operation, and was very impressed. 

We love maple syrup.   8)
Say when

beenthere

Roxie
Is a "portable milker" a cow ??   ;)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Roxie

 :D :D  The description does fit!   
Say when

bill m

I just picked up another new sugar bush this past weekend. Flagged and measured for the mainline and got a rough count of 325 taps. This will put me a little over 1000 for this year.
NH tc55da Metavic 4x4 trailer Stihl and Husky saws

CJennings

The weather around here last week was perfect for tapping and some syrup was definitely made around here, but the temperatures at my place up north were marginal at best. And now we're in for a deep freeze, so I'm not too upset I opted to wait a bit.

celliott

We opened all the drains on the tanks when we were tapping earlier this week. Now stuff won't sit and freeze up. We've drilled about 3500 so far. I did 600 today, hope to get up to 1000 a day if I can put in a good full day.

The precision tapper drills we are using. I really like these drills. I can reach as high as I possibly can above my head and drill a straight hole, perfect depth. Plus the batteries are awesome! 600 holes today and the battery was only 1/3 gone.


Chris Elliott

Clark 666C cable skidder
Husqvarna and Jonsered pro saws
265rx clearing saw
Professional maple tubing installer and maple sugaring worker, part time logger

Corley5

Where does one buy that tapper ???  Will it fit any cordless ???
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Corley5

  We're going to put out about 50 taps this year.  My son Zach has an 8th grade project to do and he decided on maple syrup.  We were going to go "back yard style" and use a turkey fryer but have made arrangements to have a 2X4 continuous flow evaporator built  8) 8) with plans to tap a few more next year and maybe more the next  ;) ;D.  His project grew and he's pleased with it now.  I hope he feels the same when he's done and wants to do it again  ;) 
  Syrup making goes back many generations in our family.  Our ancestors made it in New York  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vroman%27s_Nose    before coming here in 1883.  Simon Warner Vroman and his brother in-law,  Edson Rorabeck came by train to Petoskey and walked here to their homesteads which were part of a land grant given to Civil War Veterans and in the same section our farm is in 8)  Simon homesteaded 80 acres and his brother in-law 160 acres.  My mother is a Vroman  :)  They continued to make syrup here into the 1970s.  I've got a bottle of Vroman Brothers syrup that's never been opened  8)  We made it from the early 70s until 1988.  At that time we had 400 or so taps all on tubing feeding 25-30 taps into 55 gallon drums around the sugar bush and made on the average 100 gallons per year with flat pans on cement block arches.  In March of 1989 we had a super snow storm and the snow was just too deep that year.  We never made it again.  I'm hoping to restart a family tradition.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

celliott

Quote from: Corley5 on February 09, 2016, 02:45:01 PM
Where does one buy that tapper ???  Will it fit any cordless ???

Corley, it's a CDL product (developed/invented by a young man in VT whose family does 75k taps)  so I would imagine anyone who is a CDL dealer could order one for you. I know the people I work for can get one, I can PM you their contact info if you'd like.

They sell the drill+attachment, comes with everything you get with a standard dewalt drill, two batteries, charger, carry case, and the chuck if you still want to use it as a regular drill, and they do sell an adapter that will fit other drills.
I believe the price on the drill kit+tapper unit is around $800.

I hope you do get the family tradition rolling again, it's a great hobby but be careful it can snowball into a big operation  ;D
Chris Elliott

Clark 666C cable skidder
Husqvarna and Jonsered pro saws
265rx clearing saw
Professional maple tubing installer and maple sugaring worker, part time logger

celliott

Quote from: Chuck White on January 13, 2016, 06:58:14 AM
I can see switching to the 3/16" as you go, but to switch out all of the 5/16" with 3/16", when there's nothing wrong with the 5/16", to me anyways, is a waste of money!

Chuck, we got the sugarbush we re-tubed with 3\16'' all tapped, and we ended up adding about 1400 new taps in addition to taking out dead trees. The old 5\16'' was original and not in the best of condition. So we gained 3\16'' (and new tubing) performance, made the system more efficient, and added 1400 new taps.

Our crew is setup to install new stuff, not as we go, add ons, etc. We are very quick and efficient at it. I worked on an installation this December where we did 2500 taps start to finish in 3.5 days, without seeing the woods beforehand. These are some of the reasons the boss elected to redo the whole thing.

Now if we just worked at it weekends/on the side, and this was the only sugarbush we had, then no, re-doing the whole thing would take too long and probably not be cost effective to switch out all at once.
Chris Elliott

Clark 666C cable skidder
Husqvarna and Jonsered pro saws
265rx clearing saw
Professional maple tubing installer and maple sugaring worker, part time logger

Don_Papenburg

So why is the smaller tube more efficient?
Frick saw mill  '58   820 John Deere power. Diamond T trucks

Thank You Sponsors!